Long busy day since classes are on and some of the seniors in lab are also math majors with a class conflict so our lab make the compromise and runs late for them (but the others start on time-- double hit)
So I’m not saying no, but there are lots of things to sort out, most of which I have not thought of but here are a couple concerns from my side.
Used equipment is often abused equipment. I’m sure Don treated it well and it functioned properly at the time, but it is old, he got it used and these things often come from schools where non-experts learned how to do things and how not to do things by trial and errors. In general this means abuse which shortens the useful lifetime of things. Shipping can often be rough on equipment as well (how brittle are the heating elements?) I’m not concerned with residual value of the machine for my contribution, but rather the situation if 20 people have invested and the unit experiences a significant failure after just 5 runs of one top at a time. What is my responsibility to the remaining 15?
I’m not afraid of the work or the time commitment (this was likely a sub-zero return for Don’s time/money investment). There will be a learning curve for me to get something to work. I don’t know what plastics are appropriate, reasonable parameters at which the machine should be run, etc. There will likely be a delay before the first delivery and a significant delay for those at the end of the list since only one is made at a time and at about 2 hours (
) per run production is slow. I suspect the tip is not made in that machine so a different technique must be used to produce that (perhaps turning from delrin or steel?) People have been honest in the past about the playability of this top (it is very light for its size and as pointed out requires balancing) so the possibility of disappointment at certain investment levels should be avoided by an upfront statement of what to expect and when to expect it.
There are likely other things to address before hand to CMA but it is late and I’m still tired from festing all weekend
, so that’s all for now.